ABA Medicaid Rates: California

Medi-Cal — Behavioral Health Treatment (BHT), fee-for-service

Effective not applicable LAST CHECKED 2026-08

NO FEE-FOR-SERVICE RATE IS PUBLISHED

This is the finding, not a gap in our research. This jurisdiction sets ABA payment inside managed-care contracts that are not public, so there is no state fee schedule to report. A blank here does not mean nothing is paid. The reasoning and the documents we checked are below.

Read before using these numbers

California — the largest Medicaid program in the country — publishes no fee-for-service rate for ABA. DHCS states it is still establishing them, and until it does, enrolled behavior analysts rendering these services to fee-for-service members are paid "by report".
This is different from Ohio and Tennessee, where payment sits permanently inside managed-care contracts. California’s rates are pending rather than absent by design, and DHCS has said it will reprocess by-report claims retroactively once they are set.
The live Medi-Cal rates database lists 97151 through 97158 with a basic rate of $0.00 and a unit value of zero. The Behavioral Health Treatment provider manual lists the billable codes and, checked in full, contains no dollar figure anywhere.
State Plan Amendment 25-0028 proposes a three-tier methodology per 15 minutes, but its public notice carries no dollar amounts and the amendment is pending federal approval. Figures circulating from a draft addendum are proposals, not payable rates, and are deliberately not published here.
Fee-for-service billing by qualified autism service providers only began on 1 July 2025. Most California children receive this care through managed care plans or regional centers, whose negotiated rates are not public.

Official sources

DHCS — State Plan Amendment 25-0028 public notice, Reimbursement Methodology for Behavioral Health Treatment (proposed effective 1 July 2025) Medi-Cal Provider Manual, Part 2 — Behavioral Health Treatment (billable codes, no rates)

Bill from the source, cite us for the map. If this page disagrees with the current official schedule, the schedule wins — and we want to know:

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